Green Accents A Colorful Event

Festivities Start Early For Holiday In Hollywood

Hollywood — Drinking beer before noon on Sunday may be socially acceptable, for some, only a couple times a year.

Turns out the week of St. Patrick's Day is one of those occasions.

"St. Patrick's Day is about good food, good friends and good beer," said Mike Matthews, of Hollywood, who is of Irish descent. "We are hard-core Irish. We go everywhere, sometimes Boston or New York, to celebrate."

Children, teenagers, young adults, parents and seniors celebrated the Irish heritage with a parade and festival at Hollywood's Young Circle on Sunday.

The holiday is not until Thursday, yet about 15,000 were expected to attend the all-day event that included a parade, food, live music and children's rides.

Owners also dressed their four-legged friends for the holiday. Anne Murphy, of Hollywood, painted green shamrocks on her yellow and black Labrador retrievers, who wore green shamrock bandanas around their necks.

"They might be labs, but today they are Irish beer hounds," she said. "Downtown Hollywood is very dog friendly. We bring them down here all the time."

John Lipka is chairman of the Hibernians of Hollywood, which organizes the activities. He said this year's event cost about $30,000 and took a year to plan.

This is the seventh year the event has been in Hollywood. Last year it was called off because organizers were unable to raise enough money.

South Florida is home to more than 200,000 people of Irish descent, according to 2000 census figures: Broward County has 95,000; Palm Beach County, 78,000, and Miami-Dade County, 33,000. Florida has 1 million residents of Irish ancestry.